Rocky's Story

	This is our story about one special little horse named "Rocky". "Rocky" was born on April 11, 1999. He had a rough start right from the get go...he was born in a mud puddle! I had his dam in the barn under camera for weeks, and finally, it was such a beautiful spring day, I decided to let her out into the round pen for some fresh air and sunshine, afterall, she showed no signs of imminent foaling. I left her stall door open, as well as the barn door and the gate from the barn to the roundpen. That way, if she did decide to do something, she could at least get back into her nice dry stall.
My daughter and I were sitting at the table playing cribbage when on the monitor, we could hear "Lyndsey"(Rocky's dam)running in and out, and in and out of the barn. That was not like her, so I jumped up and looked out the patio door to see a small body thrashing around out there! I rushed out there, to find a little black body gasping and choking for air, covered in mud and laying in a mud puddle. I immediately scooped him up, and brought him into the barn, where I began drying him off with straw. I hollered at my daughter to bring some towels out to help clean and dry him off. When she got back out to the barn with the towels, I asked her to rub him down while I went to call the vet. I figured he must have inhaled a good portion of water and feared pneumonia. The vet said to give him 1/2 cc of long lasting penicillin then, and again the next day. The colt was not coming around as he should, so I took his temperature to find it had dropped to below the hypothermia level. It was important to get his body temp back up, and fast! My husband brought some warm water filled garbage bags, which we used to lay Rocky on to help raise his temp. I was using an electric hair dryer to blow warm air all over his body, as well as to dry him off. He was now starting to show his pretty buckskin pinto colorings, and was also showing his will to survive. Lyndsey stood back patiently and watched, seeming to know that we were there for no other reason than to help her new son. He was very weak, but continually showed signs of improvement, and he would bounce from side to side, and all around, just when trying to hold his own head up. It was sad to see, and I thought for sure we would lose him. After we got him as dry and as warm as possible, it was time for him to nurse. We were not able to, so gave him his colostrum by syringe, and then I would go out and milk his dam and feed him by syringe every couple of hours. I was not able to get him to actually nurse until the next day. He would nuzzle and mouth his dam, but would not actually latch onto her. It was such a great sight when he finally did! Rocky was born with an extremely undershot mouth, and very bad legs! I was not real worried about the mouth, as I figured it should straighten out on its own in time. It was his legs that had me worried. His front ones were bad, but nowhere near as bad as his back legs! On his right rear, it looked as though the ankle was set on crooked and that the tendon ran a diagonal line from his hock to his fetlock joint. He had very lax tendons, and when he stood, was not up on his hooves at all, and you could actually see the bottoms of his hooves as they faced forward, just as a persons feet are out in front of their ankle. It was a sorry sight, but Rocky didn't seem to mind!
	I took him to the vet, and Dr. Cannon did x-rays to see just what was going on in there. What had happened, was that the outside edge of the cannon bone was growing faster than the inside edge and that was causing the bad twist to the ankle joint. He splinted and wrapped the one(right)hind leg and left the other alone, as it was not as bad. I was to return in one week for reassessment. After the first week, and as soon as he removed the splint, there was a noticeable improvement, so he rewrapped the leg, and did the other one also this time. It only lasted a couple of days, and it started to fall off the leg, becoming more of a hindrance than a help. I cut it off, and brought him back again to have it redone.
After 2 more weeks in this wrap, it was clear to see that it was doing him no good at all. There was no ankle support, and his feet were still buckled under his legs from the very lax tendons. He and his dam had been on pretty much complete stall rest, as we had alot of rainy weather, and he was not allowed to get it wet, as this could cause the leg underneath to rot. The wraps were removed and we were now faced with a decision to make. Rocky could clearly not live like this because he would wear the hide and meat to the bone. He needed his hooves to walk on. Would we have to make the decision to put him to sleep? After discussing this with my vet, he also agreed that Rocky could not live like that, but it seemed such a shame to have to put him to sleep. He said that Rocky was so easy to work with, we would have to try one more thing first. On May 20th, Rocky got brand new fiberglass casts on each of his hind legs. If this works, we will work on the front legs (which aren't as severe)after the hind legs have been fixed.

He is now able to go outside and play as long as it is not wet out. The fiberglass casts are waterproof, but the cotton tube and gauze wrap sticks out the bottom of the cast a little, and would work as a wick to draw the moisture up inside of the cast, and that is not good, as it could possibly cause the skin inside the cast to rot.

Rocky will now wear his casts until June 3, when I will bring him back to have the casts removed for an evaluation. If there is even the slightest improvement, we will continue with the casts, but if not, unfortunately, we will have tried all we can, and will have to face the fact that he must be put to sleep so as to not have him suffer throughout life for our selfishness.

June 3, 1999 update-We took Rocky to the vet today for his cast removal and evaluation, and we are sorry to say it was not good news. There was no improvement at all. I decided to hold off putting him to sleep until I try just one more thing. A person wrote to me and told me about a product that she thought may help. It is called Hoof Pro. Dr. Cannon gave his honest opinion that he doesn't think it will do any good at all, but I want to at least give it a try. I will see if I can find this product and begin Rocky on it ASAP. He is now in splints again, just to give him some ankle support and to keep him up on his hooves. Wish us luck, for this is Rocky's last hope :-(

We feel that even though Rocky was not real small at birth, he is a dwarf. He has several dwarf characteristics which include an undershot jaw, short neck, poor legs, and chunky body, and since we have never had a dwarf before, we feel that Rocky must be our first! What he lacks in conformation, he surely makes up in character! He is truly one special little man!